PTR - 2015's USA Trip : The Disneyest Holiday Ever

[losfp]

Thanks for the thoughts WandelustNZ I guess the good part about loving so many of the resorts is that I can submit requests for a few of them and whichever two we end up with, I'm sure I'll be pretty happy!!

The only one I am worried about is VGC as there's no other DVC choices over at DLR so that's the one I'll hop onto ASAP. Gee, it's getting close to the 11 months out time... Better make sure I have some cash ready to go!

 

[losfp]

Ok, I think I have a bit more clarity around the resorts I want to try and book for WDW.

4 nights value resort
=============
1st Choice - Art of Animation (Little Mermaid room). The kids will love it, and it's huge so I don't expect we will have problems with availability.

5 nights Epcot-area resort
================
1st Choice - Beach Club Villas. The location is ideal, walking distance to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The water park within Beach/Yacht club is astounding for a resort pool area. Has Beaches and Cream.

2nd Choice - Boardwalk Inn Villas. Reasonably priced. Good location.

3rd Choice - Animal Kingdom Lodge. Reasonably priced. Close to AK.

4 nights Magic Kingdom area resort
======================
1st Choice - Bay Lake Tower. Superb location, walking distance to MK. Close to monorail loop and access to other MK resorts.

2nd Choice - Grand Floridian Villas. On the monorail loop.

3rd Choice - Wilderness Lodge. Close to MK, looks amazing.

Any thoughts and ideas?

I think the hardest one for me to get will be the Grand Californian for the west coast portion of the trip. Getting 8 nights there might be a challenge. It would be also great if I could get standard studios for the other places to save a buck or two, but I understand availability will be quite limited.

 

[DVCAustralia]

Just read your thread.

It sounds like a great trip.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Your DVC selections look great and it's good to see you are happy with almost all the resorts.

A few thoughts and tips that come to mind are as follows.

- During the F&W festival, Beach Club and Boardwalk are two of the hardest resorts to get. Get in early with your requests.

- If you are planning 4 nights at one of these resorts during the F&W festival, try to organise your stay during the week, not the weekend. Epcot should be avoided Friday night through to Sunday night as that's when all the locals go.

- Being able to walk to HS and Epcot from BWV is fantastic. Meanwhile, the boat and bus systems from this resort are awful. If you plan on only visiting Epcot and HS during these 4 nights of your stay, this won't be an issue.

- With the benefit of time up your sleeve (which you have), I would put as much emphasis on resort theming as I would on resort location. With a week or less at WDW, you would want somewhere well located as you would really only be in your room to sleep. But with a few weeks, you have more time to enjoy the pools and relax and enjoy the theming. The location of Bay Lake Tower is great, but to me it looks much like a resort you could find anywhere in the world. However, having never stayed there, I'm probably not the most qualified to comment.

 

[losfp]

- During the F&W festival, Beach Club and Boardwalk are two of the hardest resorts to get. Get in early with your requests.

- If you are planning 4 nights at one of these resorts during the F&W festival, try to organise your stay during the week, not the weekend. Epcot should be avoided Friday night through to Sunday night as that's when all the locals go.

Yes, I am hoping to get in right on the 11 month mark to ensure that we have the best chance possible of getting our first choices. Right now the Epcot resort portion of the trip looks like it'll be check in Sun and check out Fri. Perfect!

- Being able to walk to HS and Epcot from BWV is fantastic. Meanwhile, the boat and bus systems from this resort are awful. If you plan on only visiting Epcot and HS during these 4 nights of your stay, this won't be an issue.

I think we'll organise it so that we will visit Epcot, HS and maybe DTD and/or a water park. We will have a rental car so there should be minimal issues transport-wise I hope.

- With the benefit of time up your sleeve (which you have), I would put as much emphasis on resort theming as I would on resort location. With a week or less at WDW, you would want somewhere well located as you would really only be in your room to sleep. But with a few weeks, you have more time to enjoy the pools and relax and enjoy the theming. The location of Bay Lake Tower is great, but to me it looks much like a resort you could find anywhere in the world. However, having never stayed there, I'm probably not the most qualified to comment.

Good tip! Beach Club over Boardwalk was a theming and facilities choice rather than location, but BLT is definitely a location choice. Wilderness Lodge looks more appealing and nicer to me so that might yet creep into my first choice slot.

With DVC rentals, should I be speaking to the rental agents well ahead of time, ie: at 12 or even 13 months ahead? If I try to start the discussion right on 11 months, obviously things might book out while I'm still trying to organise it. Would appreciate any recent experiences anyone has had renting DVC points

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Wilderness Lodge looks more appealing and nicer to me so that might yet creep into my first choice slot. With DVC rentals, should I be speaking to the rental agents well ahead of time, ie: at 12 or even 13 months ahead? If I try to start the discussion right on 11 months, obviously things might book out while I'm still trying to organise it. Would appreciate any recent experiences anyone has had renting DVC points

WIlderness Lodge would definitely be my pick, but only because that style of architecture really appeals to me.

I would probably contact the brokers at about 11 1/2 months. There's not a lot they can do until you are within the 11 month window, but at least your request will be in and can be actioned as soon as bookings open up and the right amount of points becomes available.

Do be careful about having the same booking sitting with 2 different brokers. After waiting for close to 3 months for an Aulani booking to come through, I very nearly ended up with a double booking for Aulani when both came into points within a day of each other.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm with Wanderlust. I find Contemporary and BLT a little too....well.....contemporary....for my tastes. I would pick the GFV if I could swing it. The villas look amazing.

And yes, the BCV and BWV will be highly sought after during F&W.

Hope you get all your preferences.


There are less studio rooms at the GCV. If you really want to stay there, the 1-bedrooms are relatively easier to come by. But then the 1-bedrooms are also more expensive.

 

[losfp]

There are less studio rooms at the GCV. If you really want to stay there, the 1-bedrooms are relatively easier to come by. But then the 1-bedrooms are also more expensive.

Yes... yes they are... I could just about swing a week staying in a studio, but I will struggle to justify the cost of a 1BR unfortunately. I think Hojo would be my fallback if I fail to secure VGC. Either that or see if I can get PPH or something for about the same price I would have paid for VGC.

 

[shushh]

I agree that 2-3 resorts would be the absolute max I would do over 12 nights. In fact, if you can narrow that down to 2 it would be better. Despite Disney making it easy for you to move from resort to resort, it is still a pain with kids. Time at Disney is always more tiring than expected! Having to then pack and move one less time makes it a more relaxing experience. Disney will also move your fridge goods for you as well which is handy. We left early, arrange with bell services to get our stuff moved to the right resort, went to the park and came back to dine at the resort where we were staying the night and then checked in. It was all very smooth.

Whilst I loved our stay at the AKL, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for first time visitors. The rooms are very dark! And unless you get a savannah view, it isn't really all that special (the rooms that is). You also have to be very careful about not getting a room right at the very end of the VERY long corridors! Having said that, the lobby theming is gorgeous and our dining experiences at the AKL were all very good. The pool(s) is nice but again can be a long walk from the room.

If you can manage to get rooms at the VGF, it is awesome! So convenient and so very beautiful.

With the monorails remember it goes one way through the resorts, so sometimes it may be faster to get the boats instead.

I personally loved the feel of the boardwalk area. So much to do and experience in the evening and even in the day time. They have cool activities for the kids around the lake/beach.

Its pretty hard to go wrong! You're going in with a great plan of having options which will make it easier. There are pros and cons with all the resorts and hopefully you'll get to go back and try them all....

 

[Kristin5]

Your trip certainly will be a whole lotta Disney - sounds like fun!

 

[losfp]

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments and tips.

My tweaked preferences:

5 nights value resort
=============
1st Choice - Art of Animation (Little Mermaid room).

4 nights Epcot-area resort
================
1st Choice - Beach Club Villas (Studio).
2nd Choice - Boardwalk Inn Villas (Studio).
3rd Choice - Animal Kingdom Lodge (Studio).

4 nights Magic Kingdom area resort
======================
1st Choice - Wilderness Lodge (Studio)
2nd Choice - Grand Floridian Villas (Studio)
3rd Choice - Bay Lake Tower (Studio)

9 nights Disneyland Resort
================
1st Choice - Villas at the Grand Californian (Studio)
2nd Choice - Villas at the Grand Californian (Studio for first 5 nights, 1BR for last 4 nights)
3rd Choice - Villas at the Grand Californian (1BR for last 4 nights only, HoJo for first 5 nights)

As long as I get one of my preferences here, I will be pretty happy. Now to wait for the 11 month mark!!!

At the moment I have 3 nights between our cruise and flying to LA. Might either stay offsite in Orlando, stay with family in Orlando or maybe do a couple of nights in Tampa and do Busch Gardens or Legoland....

 

[Vicky2jeff]

Sounds like an amazing holiday... we went in April/May last year..we did POP Century for 15 nights and got the multi park passes plus water parks plus more. Great option but it was warmer than October/ November. We did the 7 day Caribbean Cruise on the Fantasy next as we did so much at WDW..was just amazing... Like others have said it's like being on a whole other world...I really wouldn't do a split before and after.
After the cruise we did a fees in Orlando offsite before we came home back to Perth.. We stayed at The point hotel and resort.. Doesn't have a huge following but it was amazing.. Huge room, we had a 1 bedroom suite , it had its own kitchen area .gorgeous!! It was seriously close to wet n wild like straight on the other side of the road walking distance. The had a shuttle bus to Universal and we spent 2 days doing US and IoA. There was a tram well 2 red and green and one took us to the discount outlets and the other went all the way to DTD but seaworld was on its loop and it was quite inexpensive. We loved our trip.. There is not one thing we would change unless we could add on another month....lol
We are going again next April but this time we are only doing a week in WDW 2 weeks doing the Panama Canal cruise and a few days in Miami and a few in Vegas..lol
Just can't get enough.... Happy planning, I'm also happy to give any ideas if they will help you.

 

[losfp]

Some of you may have seen my other thread asking about Aulani

Well I think I've convinced the good lady wife that finishing with a few days in Hawaii would be a nice relaxing way to finish up the trip!

This is what the trip looks like now.

13 Nights Walt Disney World
- 5n Art of Animation
- 4n Beach Club (or Boardwalk, or ???)
- 4n Grand Floridian (or Wilderness Lodge, or Bay Lake Tower)
3 Nights Universal
- Not sure which resort, but definitely onsite
1 Night Port Canaveral
- KSC in the morning, then just a quick overnight stay somewhere
7 Nights Western Caribbean Cruise
- Disney Fantasy
8 Nights Disneyland
- Grand Californian (or Hojo)
5 Nights Hawaii
- Aulani

I think I will be glad to get a rest after all that!!!!!!

 

[LivingforDisney]

Sounds fantastic! How much are u budgeting for flights?

 

[mindy32]

That's one heck of a Disney trip- so jealous! Sounds amazing. I'd love to do one of the 7 night Carribbean cruises.

 

[losfp]

Sounds fantastic! How much are u budgeting for flights?

I'm going to assume it'll cost us about 9k for flights (SYD-DFW-MCO-DFW-LAX-HNL-SYD) and if we happen upon some sales and specials, that's a bonus

That's one heck of a Disney trip- so jealous! Sounds amazing. I'd love to do one of the 7 night Carribbean cruises.

That was the first thing I booked so everything else is now going to revolve around it

 

[LivingforDisney]

Yes I have to wait till Dec ( think that is when they will release the dates I want (jan 2016)
My daughter really wants to go on the Magic, so hoping they will have a 7 night western Caribbean , if not we will book whatever ship fits with out dates.
Hoping to be able to book it Dec, then hopefully flights Jan/Feb, then I will be able to get my itinerary sorted

 

[losfp]

Just a couple of weeks out from the 12-month mark! ERMAHGERD I still have so much to plan and book. The only things I've done are put a deposit on the cruise, and put in enquiries for DVC bookings.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Time to get booking.

 

[losfp]

Visit to our travel agent to discuss flight options... check. Now to wait until flights are available before booking.

Paid deposits for DVC rentals... check. 4 separate reservations, I will be stoked if we get all four (VGC is the one I'm most worried about). Now to wait until November/December to see if we managed to get the bookings.